Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914 – May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer, with interests also encompassing micromagic, scientific skepticism, philosophy, religion, and literature—especially the writings of Lewis Carroll and G.K. Chesterton.

Gardner was best known for creating and sustaining general interest in recreational mathematics for a large part of the 20th century, principally through his Scientific American "Mathematical Games" columns from 1956 to 1981 and his subsequent books collecting them. He was an uncompromising critic of fringe science and was a founding member of CSICOP, an organization devoted to debunking pseudoscience, and wrote a monthly column ("Notes of a Fringe Watcher") from 1983 to 2002 in Skeptical Inquirer, that organization's monthly magazine. He also wrote a "Puzzle Tale" column for Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1977 to 1986 and altogether published more than 100 books.

Biography

Youth and education